After stops in London, Florence and Milan, Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025 marked the final destination of this season’s menswear tour, with notable moments including the last collection from Dries Van Noten as creative director of his eponymous label. Presented on Saturday evening (22 June 2024) on Paris’ outskirts, the Belgian designer closed the curtain on 38 years with a runway show which drafted models past and present to celebrate an acclaimed career.
Elsewhere, Rick Owens returned to Palais de Tokyo having shown in his own Paris home last season (on the gallery’s forecourt, he staged his version of a Hollywood epic), while at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson populated the runway with works from Paul Thek, Carlo Scarpa, Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. After the show, Anderson said he was inspired by the singularity of each artist’s vision. Hermès’ Véronique Nichanian, Dior Men’s Kim Jones and Louis Vuitton’s Pharrell Williams also showed their latest collections at the week, the latter making a plea for global unity with a blockbuster show at Maison de l’UNESCO.
Here, Wallpaper* picks the highlights from Paris Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.
The best of Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025
Wooyoungmi
Last season, Madame Woo imagined what Seoul might look like through an outsider’s eye; this season, she was inspired by the concept of the ’ABK’ (‘American Born Korean’), the children of immigrants from South Korea who straddle two cultures. Here, the designer said she was looking at the ABK as a particular archetype, one which ‘[embodies] the wardrobes of American lifestyle… the laid-back cool of California and Hawaii, the sporty prep of the Ivy League, the casual country energy of the Western heartland.’ All these elements were in evidence in the collection – varsity jackets, baseball-style trousers and Wooyoungmi-emblazoned sports tops all appeared – filtered through the brand’s playful, eclectic lens, which is inspired by Seoul street style (looks were layered or clashed elements, from collegiate uniforms and the business suit to surfwear). Elsewhere, homespun elements, like hand-painted calligraphy and ‘bojagi’ shirts – the latter constructed using traditional South Korean knot-tying techniques – made it what Madame Woo described ‘as most artisanal to date… a conversation between the past and the future; the hand-spun and the technological.’
Dries Van Noten
Earlier this year, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten announced that he would be leaving his eponymous label after a nearly four-decade-long career. His final show, held yesterday evening (23 June 2024), saw wellwishers travel to the Parisian suburb of St Denis, where a vast industrial warehouse had been transformed for the show. In the first room, guests – including designers Stephen Jones, Glenn Martens, Ann Demeulemeester and Pierpaolo Piccioli – mingled around a cube-like screen showing highlights from Van Noten’s career, while in the second, a silver-foil runway ran the length of the space. It was there that the designer staged his final outing, drafting models past and present to walk the show, ‘some who have been with us since the earliest shows, like family; their presence marking the passage of time’. These included Hannelore Knuts, Kirsten Owens, Malgosia Bela, Debra Shaw, Malick Bodian and Jonas Gloer, among others.
Indeed, this was a collection, said Van Noten, about time and its effects. The Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt was one of the season‘s inspirations; in her work, everyday objects are transformed by being exposed to water, chemicals or air, a process she often documents on film. Here, Van Noten’s fabrics were purposely lived-in – like softly worn English herringbone, cotton drill and Irish linen – while other pieces were inspired by suminagashi, a Japanese marbling process which dates back a millennia (here, it became flower and leaf motifs across garments). Of the silhouette, he talked about a ‘contemporary elegance’, instilling traditional tailoring with his unique brand of louche romance (the show’s final look was a perfectly cut tuxedo jacket, elongated to the model’s ankles). A series of pieces in candy-wrapper sheer fabrics – in shades of pink, lime green and turquoise – showed his mastery of colour and texture. It ended with a roaring standing ovation as the designer took his bow, before a curtain fell and an enormous disco ball appeared.
‘This is my 129th show; like the previous ones, it looks ahead. Tonight is many things, but it is not a grand finale,’ he said. ‘I love my job, I love doing fashion shows, and sharing fashion with people. Creating is about leaving something that lives on. My sense of this moment is how it is not only mine, but ours, always.’
‘It is not a grand finale’: read our full report of Dries Van Noten’s final show.
Hermès
As Paris’ longest-running creative director – she has been in the role for over three decades and counting – a large part of Véronique Nichanian’s success is her ability to make even the most painstaking feats of craft look entirely effortless. Such was the case with her S/S 2025 collection, shown at Paris’ Palais d'Iéna yesterday afternoon and backdropped by floor-to-ceiling screens depicting gently rippling blue waters. They suggested a transporting mood: via the collection notes, Nichanian spoke of a desire to evoke a ‘a sweet summer… [where] clothing casts reflections into the transparency of water.’ As such, in a largely blue colour palette – enlivened with shots of pink and foiled metallics – Nichanian conjured pieces which were seductively lightweight, from breezy Oxford shirts and patterned blousons, to tank tops, near-sheer tailored jackets and short-sleeved bowling-style knits. Meanwhile, versions of the house‘s L'Instruction du Roy print – taken from one of the house‘s signature carré silk scarves – extended from garments to the models’ skin, via a series of transferable tattoos. Ever-appealing accessories included criss-crossing calfskin sandals, glimmering palladium-finish jewellery, and versions of the house’s roomy Haut à Courroies bag in denim canvas and Togo calfskin, making for perhaps the season’s most desirable travel bag.
Loewe
Jonathan Anderson’s latest outing at Loewe saw the Garde Républicaine showspace temporarily transformed into an art gallery of sorts: dotted around the stark white runway were works by Paul Thek, Carlo Scarpa, Peter Hujar (whose photograph of a high-heeled shoe was the collection’s invite), and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, while a copy of Susan Sontag’s ‘Against Interpretation’ lay open as if in the middle of being read. After the show, Anderson explained each was an artist he admired for their distinct point of view. ‘I like that these people are singular in terms of their vision,’ he said, noting that they led him towards a collection of ‘hypnotic’ precision, led by instinct. ‘It’s about knowing when to pull back, or when to push it,’ he continued. ‘This is my own interpretation of precision.’ Of the Hujar photograph, he said
he was thinking about ‘what a collection would be if it was that.’
As such, the collection began with sharply defined black tailoring – evocative, perhaps, of the uniform of an art gallery attendant – though elongated feather headpieces, some gilded, shifted the looks somewhere else. Draped silk tops, which read ‘Loewe’, were meant to evoke the labels in clothing blown up in size, while other pieces looked like one thing but were actually another, like ‘cable knit’ tops and shorts made from hand-painted fabrics (‘things are not what they seem,’ said Anderson). Meanwhile a couture-level use of craft – an echo of the extraordinary beaded garments from his last womenswear collection – informed tabard-style tops, their shimmering surfaces made from pieces of shell or links of metal. Elongated dress shoes were another esoteric play on silhouette from the designer, which he said he extended ‘centimetre by centimetre’ to ‘work out what was enough to make it look believable’. Together, the effect was arresting, beautiful, and – much like Anderson’s winning streak of recent collections at both JW Anderson and Loewe – utterly singular.
Dior Men
The ‘homespun monumentalism’ of South African artist-potter Hylton Nel was the starting point of Kim Jones’ latest collection for Dior. ‘He’s an old friend of mine, I’ve known him maybe 12 years,’ Jones said before the show. ‘I love his work, and I wanted to take that idea of working with an artist and working it through the Dior archive.’ Backdropped by a series of blown-up versions of Nel’s distinctive cat sculptures which lined the runway, Nel’s expressive motifs – whether hand-drawn dogs, birds, flowers or trees – appeared as trinket-like buttons and badges across the collection, or as intarsia knits or embroidery. The colour palette, meanwhile, was inspired by trips to Nel’s art-filled homes in Calitzdorp, South Africa. ‘He’s lived in two houses in the same town for years and years,’ says Jones. ‘[There is] this huge sky. That was what really drew me to the colour palette, the blues and the pinks when you are there at different times of the day.’ Other pieces looked towards the Dior archive – long a source of inspiration for Jones – including an unrealised jacket sketched by Yves Saint Laurent during his tenure at the house; here, it became a white ceramic collar. ‘It a celebration of work and an expression of who somebody is and what they achieve through work,’ said Jones. ‘That legacy and continuity through time.’
Read our interview with Kim Jones on his collaboration with Hylton Nel.
Hed Mayner
Hed Mayner remains one of Paris’ most intriguing designers, creating collections in a distinct vocabulary which is often rooted in a play on proportion. This season, though, the designer spoke about going against ‘his instinct to intricately cut new patterns and cocoon the body in wide shoulders and spacious pants’, choosing instead to focus on the way that fabric – and the way it is treated, whether coated, bonded or layered – can create its own silhouettes when worn on the body. As such, there was a greater focus on texture this season, whether the shine of coated cotton (some forming abstract motifs across enormous T-shirts), fabrics that were purposely creased or distressed, or the sharpness of classic poplins and blue denim. Mayner likened the mix to a ‘Coke can shaken and waiting to burst’, and the grinding soundtrack – at one point diverting to soaring strings – lent the feeling that there was new energy this season. Also revealed was the latest part of an ongoing collaboration with Reebok, featuring a version of the sportswear brand’s Blacktop sneaker in a nostalgic, 1980s-inspired palette the designer said was ‘pitched somewhere between cross training and basketball’.
Junya Watanabe
‘I have used denim and patchwork a lot in my past collections, but this time I tried to go further in my exploration to find new discoveries,’ described Junya Watanabe of his S/S 2025 menswear collection in a typically brief statement issued by the Japanese designer. Titled ‘Dress Up Denim’ and presented on a sharp triangle of red carpet, Watanabe looked this season towards the tropes of eveningwear, beginning with a series of tuxedos constructed from a patchwork of checkered, pinstripe and tartan fabrics (accessorised, Junya-style, with earring-adorned sunglasses and slashes of coloured lipstick). Elsewhere, these same jackets were reimagined in varying shades of denim, worn with ripped and distressed jeans which pooled at the ankle, while the sartorial mood was matched in black-and-white brogues created in collaboration with Tricker’s. Completing the collection was a series of hybrid garments, from a sliced-up wool blazer-cum-denim jacket to band T-shirts – Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Scorpions all featured – inset with billowing baroque silk scarves.
Rick Owens
Rick Owens proved his mastery of spectacle by staging a Hollywood epic on the monolithic forecourt of Paris’ Palais de Tokyo. Amid plumes of smoke, out marched his hundreds-strong ‘white satin army of love’ which comprised old friends, students and underground icons like Allanah Starr. Descending the gallery’s famed staircase and looping around its central body of water, they emerged in groups of the same white outfit – whether featherweight monastic gowns or layers of jersey which appeared torn across its surface – some wielding enormous scaffold-like structures and flags. ‘This season is named “Hollywood” after the boulevard of vice I gleefully ran to,’ said Owens. ‘I always reference the lost Hollywood of pre-colour black-and-white biblical epics, mixing art deco, lurid sin and redeeming morality.’ It marked a departure from the relative intimacy of last season, whereby Owens opened up his Paris home to show the collection. ‘I felt bad about making attendance so restricted, so this time around I wanted to welcome everyone,’ he said. ‘Expressing our individuality is great but sometimes expressing our unity and reliance on each other is a good thing to remember too.’
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake
With a collection titled ‘Up, Up, and Away’, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake was inspired by the wind: ‘the phenomena caused by wind, crafts and designs that react to wind, and forms that embody wind’, the Japanese brand said in a statement. As such, the Vincent de Belleval-designed show set in the courtyard of Paris’ Mobilier National comprised a field of enormous mechanical dandelions, which swung gently from side to side as models wove their way across the space. The inspiration point lent the clothing a feeling of breezy lightness, with silhouettes drawn from kites, parachutes and waves for ‘garments that come to life as soon as the air is in motion’. A series of layered looks in scarf-like checks felt a continuation of the instinctual mood of last season, while satisfying shots of searing yellow, red and soft blue continued Homme Plissé’s near-unparalleled use of colour.
Wales Bonner
‘The idea of being by the water,’ said Grace Wales Bonner of her latest collection, which saw the London-based designer conjure the ‘nighttime vibrance of cities by the sea’ in her usual transporting style. As such, looks teetered between beachside attire – notably, pairs of swim trunks and short shorts, the former part of her ongoing collaboration with Adidas – and an insouciant glamour, here recalled in louche tuxedo tailoring (created alongside Savile Row tailor Anderson & Sheppard), glimmering footwear, and sinuous, body-skimming silhouettes, some adorned with firework-like splashes of beaded embroidery. Other pieces had a nautical air (striped jersey tops, netted detailing, a white blouson jacket and matching shorts), while a greater exploration of print this season – a welcome new layer of richness to the Wales Bonner universe – was inspired by Trinidadian textile artist Althea McNish. Moving to London in 1950, she would become a key member of the Caribbean Artist Movement and a force of midcentury print design, creating motifs for Christian Dior and Liberty. ‘The prints featured in the collection resound with McNish’s creative freedom,’ said Wales Bonner via the collection notes.
Lemaire
Lemaire’s latest show was held at the brand’s headquarters on Paris’ Place des Vosges, the inner sanctum of the label opened up to the world for the first time last season (inside, each collection is conceived and designed). It makes for the perfect vantage point to view Christophe Lemaire and working partner Sarah Linh-Tran’s collections, which are best seen up close. It also speaks to the mood of intimacy the pair capture in their men’s and womenswear collections (both lines featured in the show) which eschew ephemeral trends in favour of creating pieces to accompany the wearer through the coming years, or indeed decades, of their lives. To do so requires an innate understanding of how clothing feels on the body, and how the wrong choices – or even the most minuscule wrong cut or seam – can affect our mood, posture and day. Here, the thematic thread was the clash of the rugged and the delicate, where sinuous and layered looks – some recalling undergarments – met tough cotton drill and leather, or stricter workwear-inspired silhouettes.
Louis Vuitton
Pharrell Williams’ third collection as menswear creative director of Louis Vuitton saw the American multi-hyphenate make a plea for global unity and connection at Paris’ Maison de l'Unesco. On a grass-covered runway that stretched across the building’s rooftop, the show centred around the Erik Reitzel-conceived ‘Symbolic Globe’, which was designed in 1995 to represent the web of worldwide connections that Unesco represents. Here, Williams imagined Louis Vuitton as such a connective force with a collection designed to ‘illustrate the degrees of similarities which bind us across the globe’, defined by the slogan ‘le monde est à vous’ (‘the world is yours’), which appeared on the backs of shirts worn both on the runway and by the event’s staff. The look itself was one of ‘global dandy’, Williams described, taking inspiration from archetypal figures associated with crossing borders, from the pilot to the diplomat. Other pieces looked towards traditional workwear and sportswear, including a football kit emblazoned with ‘LVRS United’ (Williams noted that the game was another unifying force), while the palette was designed to represent a wide gamut of skin tones.
Read our full report of the Pharrell Williams’ S/S 2025 Louis Vuitton men’s show.
Auralee
Despite celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Tuesday evening (18 June 2024) marked Auralee’s sophomore show in Paris, having debuted on the schedule last season. Founded and designed by Ryota Iwai, it is a sign of the way the Tokyo-based label has steadily amped up its European presence in recent months, introducing a whole new swathe of consumers to Iwai’s sensitive riffs on the quotidian wardrobe, defined by impeccably sourced fabrics, unexpected colour, and a pervasive sense of ease. This season, he imagined his cast of men and women wandering through a verdant park in ‘relaxed, loose’ combinations which spanned plays on officewear to summertime shorts and chinos (after the show the models lined up in the lush gardens of 51 rue de l'Université). Seductive shots of colour ran throughout – pale green, red, buttercup yellow – which met classic blue denim, beige and khaki. In the humid Paris evening, it made for a wardrobe you wanted to take and wear right off the runway.
Read our interview with Ryota Iwai on ten years of Auralee.
